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- Chapter 2
-
-
-
-
-
- PC and PS/2 Video Modes
-
- 32 Fastgraph User's Guide
-
-
- Overview
-
- In the PC and PS/2 worlds, the method by which information appears on
- the computer's display screen is determined by the video mode currently in
- effect. The video modes have different resolutions, different character or
- pixel attributes, different video memory structures, and other inherent
- hardware differences. However, you do not need an in-depth knowledge of
- these video internals, because Fastgraph handles the necessary details.
-
- The PC and PS/2 video modes may be separated into two major classes:
- text modes and graphics modes. In text modes, the display screen is divided
- into character cells. By default, there are 25 rows and either 40 or 80
- columns of cells, and in each cell we can store any of the 256 characters in
- the IBM PC character set. Each character has an associated attribute that
- determines such things as its foreground color, its background color, and
- whether or not the character blinks. In graphics modes, the display screen
- is divided into picture elements, or pixels. Depending on the video mode,
- the number of pixel rows ranges between 200 and 768, while the number of
- columns ranges between 320 and 1,024. Each pixel has an associated value
- that determines the color of the pixel. The number of character cells or
- pixels available is called the resolution of the screen.
-
- The display adapter (graphics card) and the video display (monitor)
- connected to it determine the video modes available on a given system. The
- following table summarizes the characteristics of the PC and PS/2 video modes
- that Fastgraph supports.
-
- Mode No. of Supported Supported
- No. Type Resolution Colors Adapters Displays
-
- 0 T 40 x 25 16/8 CGA,EGA,VGA,MCGA,SVGA RGB,ECD,VGA,SVGA
- 1 T 40 x 25 16/8 CGA,EGA,VGA,MCGA,SVGA RGB,ECD,VGA,SVGA
- 2 T 80 x 25 16/8 CGA,EGA,VGA,MCGA,SVGA RGB,ECD,VGA,SVGA
- 3 T 80 x 25 16/8 CGA,EGA,VGA,MCGA,SVGA RGB,ECD,VGA,SVGA
- 4 G 320 x 200 4 CGA,EGA,VGA,MCGA,SVGA RGB,ECD,VGA,SVGA
- 5 G 320 x 200 4 CGA,EGA,VGA,MCGA,SVGA RGB,ECD,VGA,SVGA
- 6 G 640 x 200 2/16 CGA,EGA,VGA,MCGA,SVGA RGB,ECD,VGA,SVGA
- 7 T 80 x 25 b/w MDA,HGC,EGA,VGA,SVGA Monochrome
- 9 G 320 x 200 16 Tandy 1000,PCjr RGB
- 11 G 720 x 348 b/w HGC Monochrome
- 12 G 320 x 200 b/w HGC Monochrome
- 13 G 320 x 200 16 EGA,VGA,SVGA RGB,ECD,VGA,SVGA
- 14 G 640 x 200 16 EGA,VGA,SVGA RGB,ECD,VGA,SVGA
- 15 G 640 x 350 b/w EGA,VGA,SVGA Mono,VGA,SVGA
- 16 G 640 x 350 16/64 EGA,VGA,SVGA ECD,VGA,SVGA
- 17 G 640 x 480 2/256K VGA,MCGA,SVGA VGA,SVGA
- 18 G 640 x 480 16/256K VGA,SVGA VGA,SVGA
- 19 G 320 x 200 256/256K VGA,MCGA,SVGA VGA,SVGA
- 20 G 320 x 200 256/256K VGA,SVGA VGA,SVGA
- 21 G 320 x 400 256/256K VGA,SVGA VGA,SVGA
- 22 G 320 x 240 256/256K VGA,SVGA VGA,SVGA
- 23 G 320 x 480 256/256K VGA,SVGA VGA,SVGA
- 24 G 640 x 400 256/256K SVGA SVGA
- 25 G 640 x 480 256/256K SVGA SVGA
- 26 G 800 x 600 256/256K SVGA SVGA
- 27 G 1024 x 768 256/256K SVGA SVGA
- Chapter 2: PC and PS/2 Video Modes 33
-
-
- 28 G 800 x 600 16/256K SVGA SVGA
- 29 G 1024 x 768 16/256K SVGA SVGA
-
- Some notes about the format and abbreviations used in this table are in
- order. In the "type" column, "T" means a text mode and "G" means a graphics
- mode. A single value in the "number of colors" column refers to the number
- of colors available in that video mode. In text modes, a pair of numbers
- such as 16/8 means each displayed character can have one of 16 foreground
- colors and one of 8 background colors. In graphics modes, a pair of numbers
- such as 16/64 means 16 colors can be displayed simultaneously from a
- collection, or palette, of 64. The "b/w" listed in the monochrome modes
- stands for "black and white". Characters or pixels in these video modes do
- not really have associated colors but instead have display attributes such as
- blinking or different intensities.
-
- The meanings of the abbreviations in the "supported adapters" and
- "supported displays" columns are:
-
- CGA Color Graphics Adapter
- ECD Enhanced Color Display
- EGA Enhanced Graphics Adapter
- HGC Hercules Graphics Card
- MCGA Multi-Color Graphics Array
- MDA Monochrome Display Adapter
- RGB Red-Green-Blue Color Display
- VGA Video Graphics Array
- SVGA SuperVGA
-
- The use of the term "VGA" in the "supported display" column refers to any
- analog display, such as a VGA or Multisync monitor. The term "SVGA" refers
- explicitly to a SuperVGA monitor or adapter.
-
- The IBM PS/2 family does not have an adapter and display combination per
- se. Instead, the video hardware used in these systems is called the video
- subsystem. The Model 25 and Model 30 have an MCGA-based video subsystem,
- while other models have a VGA-based video subsystem. From Fastgraph's
- perspective, the PS/2 video subsystem is no different than an ordinary VGA
- card and monitor.
-
- This rest of this chapter will provide an overview of the most important
- features and restrictions of each video mode. The first section will discuss
- the text modes, while the following section will discuss the graphics modes.
-
-
- Text Modes
-
- There are five text video modes in the IBM PC and PS/2 family. Four of
- these modes (0, 1, 2, and 3) are designed for color displays, while the
- remaining mode (7) is designed for monochrome displays. All text modes were
- introduced with the original IBM PC.
-
- In text modes, the screen is divided into character cells. There are
- two bytes of video memory associated with each character cell -- one byte for
- the character's ASCII value, and another for the character's display
- attribute. The amount of video memory required to store one screen of
- information (called a video page) is thus
- 34 Fastgraph User's Guide
-
-
- number_of_columns x number_of_rows x 2
-
- All text modes use 25 rows, so for the 40-column modes (0 and 1) the size of
- a video page is 2,000 bytes, and for the 80-column modes (2, 3, and 7) the
- size of a video page is 4,000 bytes.
-
- Mode No. of Supported Supported
- No. Type Resolution Colors Adapters Displays
-
- 0 T 40 x 25 16/8 CGA,EGA,VGA,MCGA,SVGA RGB,ECD,VGA,SVGA
- 1 T 40 x 25 16/8 CGA,EGA,VGA,MCGA,SVGA RGB,ECD,VGA,SVGA
- 2 T 80 x 25 16/8 CGA,EGA,VGA,MCGA,SVGA RGB,ECD,VGA,SVGA
- 3 T 80 x 25 16/8 CGA,EGA,VGA,MCGA,SVGA RGB,ECD,VGA,SVGA
- 7 T 80 x 25 b/w MDA,HGC,EGA,VGA,SVGA Monochrome
-
- The remainder of this section will describe the text video modes in more
- detail.
-
- Mode 0
-
- Mode 0 is a 40-column by 25-row color text mode. It is often called a
- colorless mode since it was designed to be used with composite or television
- monitors (as opposed to RGB monitors). When used with these types of
- monitors, the available 16 "colors" appear as distinct shades of gray. When
- used with an RGB monitor, mode 0 is identical in all respects to mode 1. The
- use of composite or television monitors as PC video displays has virtually
- disappeared today. As a result, mode 0 is used infrequently.
-
- Mode 1
-
- Mode 1 is a 40-column by 25-row color text mode. It is supported across
- all video adapter and color display combinations in the PC and PS/2 families.
- Characters displayed in mode 1 have an associated display attribute that
- defines the character's foreground color, its background color, and whether
- or not it blinks. Sixteen foreground colors and eight background colors are
- available.
-
- Mode 2
-
- Mode 2 is an 80-column by 25-row color text mode. Like mode 0, it is
- often called a colorless mode since it was designed to be used with composite
- or television monitors (as opposed to RGB monitors). When used with these
- types of monitors, the available 16 "colors" appear as distinct shades of
- gray. When used with an RGB monitor, mode 2 is identical in all respects to
- mode 3. The use of composite or television monitors as PC video displays has
- virtually disappeared today. As a result, mode 2 is used infrequently.
-
- Mode 3
-
- Mode 3 is an 80-column by 25-row color text mode. It is the default
- video mode for systems that use any type of color display. This mode is
- supported across all video adapter and color display combinations in the PC
- and PS/2 families. Characters displayed in mode 3 have an associated display
- attribute that defines the character's foreground color, its background
- color, and whether or not it blinks. Sixteen foreground colors and eight
- background colors are available.
- Chapter 2: PC and PS/2 Video Modes 35
-
-
- Mode 7
-
- Mode 7 is the 80-column by 25-row monochrome text mode. It is the
- default video mode for systems that use a monochrome display. To use this
- mode, you must have a Monochrome Display Adapter (MDA), Hercules Graphics
- Card (HGC), or an Enhanced Graphics Adapter (EGA) connected to a monochrome
- display. Most VGA and SVGA display adapters also provide an emulation mode
- that allows you to use mode 7 with analog displays. Characters displayed in
- mode 7 have an associated display attribute that defines whether the
- character is invisible, normal, bold, underlined, reversed, blinking, or a
- combination of these.
-
-
- Graphics Modes
-
- There are 13 standard graphics video modes available in the IBM PC and
- PS/2 family. Fastgraph provides support for 11 of the 13 modes (modes 8 and
- 10, which are specific to the PCjr and Tandy 1000 systems, are not
- supported). In addition to these 13 modes, Fastgraph supports six SuperVGA
- graphics modes (modes 24 to 29), four extended VGA modes (modes 20 to 23),
- and two video modes for the Hercules Graphics Card (modes 11 and 12). The
- following sections discuss these graphics modes in more detail. The
- discussions include an overview of video memory organization in each mode,
- but you don't need a knowledge of this subject to use Fastgraph.
-
-
- CGA Graphics Modes
-
- Modes 4, 5, and 6 are designed to be used with the Color Graphics
- Adapter (CGA) and for this reason are called the native CGA modes. They were
- the only graphics modes available with the original IBM PC. Newer graphics
- adapters (EGA, VGA, MCGA, and SVGA) can emulate the CGA, which means that the
- CGA graphics modes are available on any PC or PS/2 system equipped with a
- color display.
-
- Mode No. of Supported Supported
- No. Type Resolution Colors Adapters Displays
-
- 4 G 320 x 200 4 CGA,EGA,VGA,MCGA,SVGA RGB,ECD,VGA,SVGA
- 5 G 320 x 200 4 CGA,EGA,VGA,MCGA,SVGA RGB,ECD,VGA,SVGA
- 6 G 640 x 200 2/16 CGA,EGA,VGA,MCGA,SVGA RGB,ECD,VGA,SVGA
-
- Mode 4
-
- Mode 4 is a CGA graphics mode with a resolution of 320 horizontal pixels
- by 200 vertical pixels. Each pixel can assume one of four colors (the
- available colors are determined by which one of six palettes has been
- selected), so each pixel requires two bits of video memory. This means that
- each byte of video memory represents four pixels.
-
- Mode 5
-
- Mode 5 is the colorless analog of mode 4. It was designed to be used
- with composite or television monitors (as opposed to RGB monitors). When
- used with these types of monitors, the four colors appear as distinct shades
- of gray. When used with an RGB monitor, mode 5 is essentially identical to
- 36 Fastgraph User's Guide
-
-
- mode 4. The use of composite or television monitors as PC video displays has
- virtually disappeared today. As a result, mode 5 is used infrequently.
-
- Mode 6
-
- Mode 6 is a CGA graphics mode with a resolution of 640 horizontal pixels
- by 200 vertical pixels. Each pixel can assume two states -- on or off. The
- color in which the "on" pixels appear can be selected from a palette of 16
- available colors. Each pixel thus requires one bit of video memory, which
- means that each byte of video memory represents eight pixels.
-
-
- Tandy 1000 and PCjr Graphics Modes
-
- Modes 8, 9, and 10 are only available on the PCjr and Tandy 1000 series
- computers (these systems also support modes 4, 5, and 6). Modes 8 and 10 are
- not widely used, and for this reason Fastgraph does not support them.
-
- Mode No. of Supported Supported
- No. Type Resolution Colors Adapters Displays
-
- 8 G 160 x 200 16 Tandy 1000,PCjr RGB
- 9 G 320 x 200 16 Tandy 1000,PCjr RGB
- 10 G 640 x 200 4 Tandy 1000,PCjr RGB
-
- Mode 9
-
- Mode 9 is a Tandy 1000 and PCjr graphics mode with a resolution of 320
- horizontal pixels by 200 vertical pixels. Each pixel can assume one of 16
- colors, so each pixel requires four bits of video memory. This means that
- each byte of video memory represents two pixels. The Tandy 1000 and PCjr use
- standard random-access memory (RAM) as video memory.
-
-
- Hercules Graphics Modes
-
- Modes 11 and 12 are used with the Hercules Graphics Card (HGC) and a
- monochrome display. As such, they are not true IBM video modes, but because
- of the popularity of the HGC, Fastgraph provides support for this adapter.
-
- Mode No. of Supported Supported
- No. Type Resolution Colors Adapters Displays
-
- 11 G 720 x 348 b/w HGC Monochrome
- 12 G 320 x 200 b/w HGC Monochrome
-
- Mode 11
-
- Mode 11 is a true Hercules graphics mode with a resolution of 720
- horizontal pixels by 348 vertical pixels. Each pixel can assume two
- states -- on or off. Each pixel thus requires one bit of video memory, which
- means that each byte of video memory represents eight pixels.
- Chapter 2: PC and PS/2 Video Modes 37
-
- Mode 12
-
- Mode 12 is a software-simulated Hercules graphics mode with an effective
- resolution of 320 horizontal pixels by 200 vertical pixels. Its purpose is
- to provide a resolution that is available with all other graphics display
- adapters.
-
- This mode converts all coordinates from the 320 by 200 space (called
- virtual coordinates) into the 720 by 348 coordinate system (called physical
- coordinates). It does this by using two physical pixels for each virtual
- pixel and scan doubling the odd-numbered virtual rows. Finally, offsets are
- added to the resulting physical coordinates to center the image area on the
- display. This creates an image area bounded horizontally by the physical
- coordinates 40 and 679 and vertically by the physical coordinates 24 and 323.
-
-
- EGA Graphics Modes
-
- Modes 13 through 16 were introduced with the Enhanced Graphics Adapter
- (EGA) and for this reason are called the native EGA modes. VGA and SVGA
- adapters also provide support for these modes, but the MCGA does not. The
- original IBM EGA only contained 64K bytes of video memory, but memory could
- be added in 64K increments to fully populate the adapter with 256K bytes of
- video memory. As other manufacturers developed EGA cards, they generally
- included 256K bytes of video memory as a standard feature.
-
- Mode No. of Supported Supported
- No. Type Resolution Colors Adapters Displays
-
- 13 G 320 x 200 16 EGA,VGA,SVGA RGB,ECD,VGA,SVGA
- 14 G 640 x 200 16 EGA,VGA,SVGA RGB,ECD,VGA,SVGA
- 15 G 640 x 350 b/w EGA,VGA,SVGA Mono,VGA,SVGA
- 16 G 640 x 350 16/64 EGA,VGA,SVGA ECD,VGA,SVGA
-
- Mode 13
-
- Mode 13 is an EGA graphics mode with a resolution of 320 horizontal
- pixels by 200 vertical pixels. Each pixel can assume one of 16 colors, so
- each pixel requires four bits of video memory. In this mode, video memory is
- organized as four bit planes. Each video memory address actually references
- four bytes, one in each plane. Put another way, each video memory byte
- references eight pixels, stored one bit per plane.
-
- Mode 14
-
- Mode 14 is an EGA graphics mode with a resolution of 640 horizontal
- pixels by 200 vertical pixels. Each pixel can assume one of 16 colors, so
- each pixel requires four bits of video memory. In this mode, video memory is
- organized as four bit planes. Each video memory address actually references
- four bytes, one in each plane. Put another way, each video memory byte
- references eight pixels, stored one bit per plane.
-
- Mode 15
-
- Mode 15 is an EGA monochrome graphics mode with a resolution of 640
- horizontal pixels by 350 vertical pixels. Each pixel can assume one of 4
- display attributes, so each pixel requires two bits of video memory. In this
- 38 Fastgraph User's Guide
-
-
- mode, video memory is organized as four bit planes, two of which are
- disabled. Each video memory address actually references two bytes, one in
- each enabled plane. Put another way, each video memory byte references eight
- pixels, stored one bit per plane.
-
- Mode 16
-
- Mode 16 is an EGA graphics mode with a resolution of 640 horizontal
- pixels by 350 vertical pixels.1 Each pixel can assume one of 16 colors (the
- 16 colors can be selected from a palette of 64 colors), so each pixel
- requires four bits of video memory. In this mode, video memory is organized
- as four bit planes. Each video memory address actually references four
- bytes, one in each plane. Put another way, each video memory byte references
- eight pixels, stored one bit per plane.
-
-
- VGA and MCGA Graphics Modes
-
- Modes 17, 18, and 19 were introduced with the MCGA and VGA video
- subsystems of the IBM PS/2 computers. Since the introduction of the PS/2,
- other manufacturers have developed VGA cards that can be used with the PC
- family. VGA and SVGA adapters support all three of these modes, but the MCGA
- does not support mode 18. Modes 17 and 18 are called native VGA modes.
-
- Mode No. of Supported Supported
- No. Type Resolution Colors Adapters Displays
-
- 17 G 640 x 480 2/256K VGA,MCGA,SVGA VGA,SVGA
- 18 G 640 x 480 16/256K VGA,SVGA VGA,SVGA
- 19 G 320 x 200 256/256K VGA,MCGA,SVGA VGA,SVGA
-
- Mode 17
-
- Mode 17 is a VGA and MCGA graphics mode with a resolution of 640
- horizontal pixels by 480 vertical pixels. Each pixel can assume two
- states -- on or off. The color in which the "on" and "off" pixels appear can
- be selected from a palette of 262,144 available colors. Each pixel thus
- requires one bit of video memory, which means that each byte of video memory
- represents eight pixels. On VGA and SVGA systems, video memory is organized
- as four bit planes, and mode 17 is implemented by enabling one of these
- planes.
-
- Mode 18
-
- Mode 18 is a native VGA graphics mode with a resolution of 640
- horizontal pixels by 480 vertical pixels. Each pixel can assume one of 16
- colors (the 16 colors can be selected from a palette of 262,144 colors), so
- each pixel requires four bits of video memory. In this mode, video memory is
- organized as four bit planes. Each video memory address actually references
- four bytes, one in each plane. Put another way, each video memory byte
- references eight pixels, stored one bit per plane.
- ____________________
-
- (1) In mode 16, the video page size actually is 640 by 400 pixels, though
- the screen resolution is 640 by 350. The final 50 pixel rows (350 to 399) on
- each video page are not displayed but are available for off-screen storage.
- Chapter 2: PC and PS/2 Video Modes 39
-
-
- Mode 19
-
- Mode 19 is a VGA and MCGA graphics mode with a resolution of 320
- horizontal pixels by 200 vertical pixels. Each pixel can assume one of 256
- colors (the 256 colors can be selected from a palette of 262,144 colors), so
- each pixel requires eight bits of video memory. This means that each byte of
- video memory represents one pixel.
-
-
- Extended VGA (XVGA) Graphics Modes
-
- Modes 20 through 23 are the extended VGA or XVGA graphics modes.
- Although these video modes are not standard VGA modes, they will work on any
- register-compatible VGA or SVGA adapter. These video modes are especially
- popular for game development because they offer video page resizing, whereas
- the standard 256-color mode does not. Mode 20 is the XVGA version of mode
- 19, while mode 21 uses scan doubling to achieve a 400-line display. Mode 22
- is the so-called "mode X" and is appealing because it has a 1:1 aspect ratio.
- Mode 23 is identical to mode 22, but it uses scan doubling to achieve a 480-
- line display.
-
- Mode No. of Supported Supported
- No. Type Resolution Colors Adapters Displays
-
- 20 G 320 x 200 256/256K VGA,SVGA VGA,SVGA
- 21 G 320 x 400 256/256K VGA,SVGA VGA,SVGA
- 22 G 320 x 240 256/256K VGA,SVGA VGA,SVGA
- 23 G 320 x 480 256/256K VGA,SVGA VGA,SVGA
-
- Mode 20
-
- Mode 20 is an XVGA graphics mode with a resolution of 320 horizontal
- pixels by 200 vertical pixels. Each pixel can assume one of 256 colors (the
- 256 colors can be selected from a palette of 262,144 colors), so each pixel
- requires eight bits of video memory. This means that each byte of video
- memory represents one pixel. This mode offers the same resolution and number
- of colors as mode 19, but its video memory is organized as a series of four
- bit planes. Every fourth pixel is stored in the same plane (that is, a pixel
- whose horizontal coordinate is x resides in plane x mod 4).
-
- Mode 21
-
- Mode 21 is an XVGA color graphics mode with a resolution of 320
- horizontal pixels by 400 vertical pixels. Except for the resolution, its
- video memory organization is identical to mode 20.
-
- Mode 22
-
- Mode 22 is an XVGA color graphics mode with a resolution of 320
- horizontal pixels by 240 vertical pixels. This is the so-called "mode X"
- made famous by Michael Abrash in Dr. Dobb's Journal. Except for the
- resolution, its video memory organization is identical to mode 20.
- 40 Fastgraph User's Guide
-
-
- Mode 23
-
- Mode 23 is an XVGA color graphics mode with a resolution of 320
- horizontal pixels by 480 vertical pixels. Except for the resolution, its
- video memory organization is identical to mode 20.
-
-
- SuperVGA (SVGA) Graphics Modes
-
- Modes 24 through 29 are the SuperVGA or SVGA graphics modes. If you've
- done any work with SVGA cards, you probably know that different manufacturers
- use different numbers to reference the SVGA video modes. For example, the
- 640 by 480 256-color graphics mode number is 62 hex on ATI cards, 5D hex on
- Trident cards, and 2E hex on Tseng Labs cards. Fastgraph's SVGA kernel,
- described in detail in the next chapter, handles the details of mapping
- Fastgraph's general SVGA video mode numbers (24 to 29) to the chipset-
- specific video mode numbers of the supported SVGA cards.
-
- Mode No. of Supported Supported
- No. Type Resolution Colors Adapters Displays
-
- 24 G 640 x 400 256/256K SVGA SVGA
- 25 G 640 x 480 256/256K SVGA SVGA
- 26 G 800 x 600 256/256K SVGA SVGA
- 27 G 1024 x 768 256/256K SVGA SVGA
- 28 G 800 x 600 16/256K SVGA SVGA
- 29 G 1024 x 768 16/256K SVGA SVGA
-
- Mode 24
-
- Mode 24 is a SuperVGA graphics mode with a resolution of 640 horizontal
- pixels by 400 vertical pixels. Each pixel can assume one of 256 colors (the
- 256 colors can be selected from a palette of 262,144 colors), so each pixel
- requires eight bits of video memory. This means that each byte of video
- memory represents one pixel, so at least 256K of video memory is needed for
- this mode. Note that a fair number of SVGA cards do not support this video
- mode.
-
- Mode 25
-
- Mode 25 is a SuperVGA graphics mode with a resolution of 640 horizontal
- pixels by 480 vertical pixels. It is probably the most popular SVGA graphics
- mode. Each pixel can assume one of 256 colors (the 256 colors can be
- selected from a palette of 262,144 colors), so each pixel requires eight bits
- of video memory. This means that each byte of video memory represents one
- pixel, so at least 512K of video memory is needed for this mode.
-
- Mode 26
-
- Mode 26 is a SuperVGA graphics mode with a resolution of 800 horizontal
- pixels by 600 vertical pixels. Each pixel can assume one of 256 colors (the
- 256 colors can be selected from a palette of 262,144 colors), so each pixel
- requires eight bits of video memory. This means that each byte of video
- memory represents one pixel, so at least 512K of video memory is needed for
- this mode.
- Chapter 2: PC and PS/2 Video Modes 41
-
-
- Mode 27
-
- Mode 27 is a SuperVGA graphics mode with a resolution of 1024 horizontal
- pixels by 768 vertical pixels. Each pixel can assume one of 256 colors (the
- 256 colors can be selected from a palette of 262,144 colors), so each pixel
- requires eight bits of video memory. This means that each byte of video
- memory represents one pixel, so at least 768K of video memory is needed for
- this mode.
-
-
- Mode 28
-
- Mode 28 is a SuperVGA graphics mode with a resolution of 800 horizontal
- pixels by 600 vertical pixels. Each pixel can assume one of 16 colors (the
- 16 colors can be selected from a palette of 262,144 colors), so each pixel
- requires four bits of video memory. In this mode, video memory is organized
- as four bit planes. Each video memory address actually references four
- bytes, one in each plane. Put another way, each video memory byte references
- eight pixels, stored one bit per plane. At least 256K of video memory is
- needed to use this mode.
-
- Mode 29
-
- Mode 29 is a SuperVGA graphics mode with a resolution of 1024 horizontal
- pixels by 768 vertical pixels. Each pixel can assume one of 16 colors (the
- 16 colors can be selected from a palette of 262,144 colors), so each pixel
- requires four bits of video memory. In this mode, video memory is organized
- as four bit planes. Each video memory address actually references four
- bytes, one in each plane. Put another way, each video memory byte references
- eight pixels, stored one bit per plane. At least 512K of video memory is
- needed to use this mode.
- 42 Fastgraph User's Guide